Fotiá Arc
by JustinEverything
Summary: After winning the battle with Salem at her castle, Jaune is wondering the halls when he finds a lab used by Arthur Watts. In the lab he finds something unthinkable. A baby. Not just any baby either. It's also a clone of a woman Jaune hated. Cinder Fall. What will Jaune do to the child? Why, take her in of course!...Wait. (No pairing decided as of yet)


**Author's Note** **: Hey this is another fanfic I've been working on for quite some time. With how many people liked my first fanfic, I decided to work up the courage to post this. By the way, I got this prompt from "smh0217" over on tumblr, so go check him out. Feel free to critique, I could really use it since I'm just beginning, but any straight up hate and flames are not welcome. Please, don't be a jerk. Anyways, let's get into it!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. That right belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

Jaune walked through the dark halls of Salem's castle, or more accurately what was left of them. The entire structure seemed to be cracked and falling apart every few feet. He was searching the destroyed building for any survivors, anyone on their side or if there were any left on the opposite side that were still fighting or had yet to escape. He wanted to make sure they had actually won.

They had won. It's such a short phrase, but one he couldn't believe, couldn't trust. After fighting so much, for so long, it seemed wrong to think was all over with just those words.

The siege on the castle was long, almost a full 2 days of constant fighting, but they broke through. The final fight with Salem was finished, Ruby being the one to land the last blow, killing the grimm queen. Now it was just a matter of helping the wounded. There was also the possibility that Salem had other supporters but, with her dead, chances are they're long gone. Still, he didn't want to be caught off guard. Not again...never again...

So Sun, Nora, Ren, Jaune and several teams had started searching the castle for hurt….and dead...allies. They found quite a few, from both categories. They would send the injured back to the main force with a member of the search party after Jaune helped heal any serious wounds by amping what aura they had left or giving them some of his. They had memorized where the dead were to be retrieved soon before pushing on. It was pretty easy to remember where the bodies were, Jaune knew he wouldn't be able to forget for some time.

Jaune was snapped out of his thoughts by a faint hum barely audible amongst the cracking and crashing of the castle stones. Jaune listened for the hum and started to follow it. He followed it farther down the hall, and to a dark wooden door with a silver knocker and doorknob, a dancing greenish-blue light coming out through the door.

Jaune looked at the door up and down, studying it, before muttering "Welp, let's see what's behind door number 1." With that he drew Crocea Mors, raised his right foot and kicked the door by it's knob, breaking the latch through the stone brick, and knocking it inward into the opposite room, revealing one hell of a sight. "What the-?" Lost for words, Jaune looked around the room in disbelief at the sight in front of him.

A giant cylinder filled with a greenish blue liquid, with a light in the top of the cylinder filling the room with the same color as the liquid. There also appeared to be 3 other tanks, but they were smashed and the fluid was pooled on the floor. However, it was what was in the remaining tank that had Jaune lost for words.

A child. A human infant was floating in the tank. A little girl with a tube running into her mouth, assumingly down her throat to her stomach, and an oxygen supply tube to her nose. The child looked to be about five months old. Jaune was slowly approaching the tank, glancing around the room for anyone else. Finding no one he started inspecting the tank closer. He found something like a metal basket on the tank's side, holding a packet of papers at least 50 pages thick, along with some kind of electrical panel. Jaune had no idea what the panel did so he moved on to basket and removed the packet.

Jaune, curiosity getting the better of him, starts to flip through it, skim reading it. He soon pauses when he finds quite a disturbing passage close to the beginning.

 _ **TEST #0347**_

 _ **Cloned Subject - Cinder Fall**_

' _WHAT?!'_ Jaune stared in shock as he read more. _'Attempt #4 - The most recent of my attempts to clone Ms. Fall has been the most successful by leaps and bounds. Perhaps it has to do with taking her DNA after she received the Fall Maiden's powers. Or perhaps I am just getting better with this subject. Either way, the clone has been perfectly stable since its creation six months ago. The excellerent for her age will be added shortly, then if she survives her body reaching to its adult stage, I shall work on transferring most of Ms. Fall's memories to the clone. With any luck this will also give us another Fall Maiden. We shall see very soon if this clone will be just another failure or not._ _ **-Arthur Watts, Update written on 7/21**_ _'_

Jaune stared at the date for a good minute. _'This was written the day before we started the siege! Watts...you horrid, despicable man!'_ Arthur wasalso at Salem's castle and Jaune was happy to admit that he watched the ex-Atlas scientist/doctor get gunned down by several hunters. He knew what that man had done, how many betrayals he caused and committed, not to mention the little "experiments" he had done in the past. To clone someone though and force them to be your pawn again?! Jaune looked up back to the tank at the floating baby girl with raven black hair and a tube entering her mouth, supposedly connected to her stomach, and an oxygen supply hose into her nose. This was a body being created to be a weapon?

"JAUNE?! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Jaune was startled out of his stare by the yell coming from the hallway he came from. He knew that voice very well, it was Ruby's.

"JAUNE! ANSWER US!" That was Yang's.

Jaune glanced at the tank again before answering back in his own yell. "I'M DOWN HERE GUYS! I'M IN SOME SORT OF LAB! COME OVER HERE QUICK! YOU NEED TO SEE THIS!"

Pounding footsteps were heard from the hallway as several young men and women ran towards the call. It took only a few seconds before team RWBY, Nora, Ren, Sun and Ilia rounded the corner and into the room. Just like him, they all froze upon entering, staring at the glowing tank in front of Jaune.

Sun was the first to speak and pretty much summed up what everyone was thinking "What the hell it that?"

Jaune held up the packet and tossed it to him, which he fumbled with a bit being surprised by the toss. "It's a clone. Created by Arthur Watts."

As the others crowded around sun to look at the packet, Weiss walked closer to inspect the machine. "A clone of who?"

"Cinder Fall." Jaune answered bluntly.

"WHAT!?" was pretty much the group's collective thought.

"Yeah, I had the same reaction."

"Why would they clone her?!"

"Two keep one of their most valuable pieces Ruby. I think they were trying to make it so they would always have a maiden at their disposal."

"Actually a smart move, considering my mom did end up killing that chick." Yang was the next to walk closer to the tank, so that her face was only inches from the glass.

"I guess that is true, not knowing where or who the next fall maiden would be. Having the chance for you to have another one ready in the making would be priceless..." Blake's statement brought about a silence before she asked "So what do we do now?"

"What do you mean Blake?" Ilia wasn't the only one confused.

"What do we do with this clone?"

Everyone turned to stare at the cat faunus. "What are you getting at blake?"

Blake sighed. She would have to be blunt "Should we kill it?"

"Blake!"

"I'm sorry Ruby, but I'm serious. We all remember what Cinder did right? Do any of you want another one of her running around?"

No, they didn't. Cinder Fall was one of the people they could all say they hated. After all, Cinder was the reason Beacon fell, the reason so many huntsman and huntresses in training were killed….the reason why Pyrrha wasn't here. She may have been Salem's pawn, but she did it all with no remorse and maybe even with a bit of sick joy. Most of them had killed at some point now, so it wasn't a new concept to them, but this was different. This was a child.

"Maybe we should" was Weiss' two cents. "It might save a lot of pain in the future if we just get rid of it now."

Sun walked forward. "Weiss, do you honestly want to kill this thing?"

"No, I don't, but with the chances of her turning into another monster, I will." Weiss adamantly stated. She was agreeing with Blake.

Ren dipped his head, contemplating the options. Then spoke "We can't risk it."

"No." Jaune's simple statement got everyone's attention.

Weiss looked up from the control panel connected to the tank. "Jaune, think for a second. Cinder killed, lied and ruined so much. What do you think this version of her will do?"

"I don't know...but neither do you. The little bit I read from that packet-" Jaune pointed at the packet still in Sun's hands "-says Watts was planning on transferring old Cinder's memories to this clone after he added something called an "age excellerent" to make her age faster into an adult."

"That's what I'm talking about Jaune," Blake reasoned "Do you not realize the damage another Cinder might do?"

Jaune calmly turned to her and the rest of the group. With a understanding tone, he spoke. "I do, believe me I do, but that doesn't mean she will be another Cinder. Watt's wrote he would work on transferring the memories _after_ she reached adulthood with the excellerent. That he _'Would'._ That means he probably didn't do it in the day and a half before we attacked cause she's still just a baby. An innocent baby."

"Jaune, it-"

"She, Ren. She's a girl, not a thing."

"Okay, _she_ still has Cinder's blood in her. I-..."Her" very being is made of horrible ambitions and morals." Ren comfortingly argued with his leader.

"Ren, that's not a sure thing. She's only a baby, with none of the original Cinder's memories or pasts. Cinder may not have always been evil. Something could have easily have happened in Cinder's life that drove her to Salem. That doesn't excuse what she did, nothing ever will, but that means that this could be just a innocent child. It isn't right to judge her before she's done anything wrong."

Weiss decided to step back into the argument, "No, but it could save lives Jaune. It's our duty to protect people. What will even happen to her when she's free? Who would look after her? People know what Cinder did. No one will want to look after a child clone of her."

Jaune turned away from everyone else in the lab, facing the tank. Then he spoke, his voice calm, but also holding a power in it that only someone with decades of life experiences under their belt should have. "If we start judging people before they commit a crime, what does that say about us? It says we are so paranoid of another villain rising up, that we would murder a child just to prevent something bad, that might not even happen, from occurring. That would make us monsters, not hunters. Like the same monsters we swore to fight, have fought, and probably will continue to fight for the foreseeable future. I've crossed many lines fighting in this war, as have you. I have even thrown out morals I use to hold above everything during it. This isn't a line we can cross because if we do...there won't be a chance to come back."

All the other young men and women in the room stared at the knight in shock. They had heard many rallies, pep talks, and war speeches by Jaune over the years, giving them confidence when they needed it, but never something so...true. He made them all contemplate the choices they had, before Ruby walked forward. "I side with Jaune on this. We need to give her a chance."

"That still doesn't answer who will care for her." Weiss brought up.

Jaune didn't even hesitate with an answer "I will. If no one else will fight for her, then I'll just have to."

The others wanted to disagree, but no one did. This was just like Jaune, wanting to help everyone. Weiss sighed "Fine, although it is against my better judgement, let's just do it. Now, how do we get her out of that tank?"

"I'll look at the control console, maybe there is a release button hehe." Jaune walked to the nearby panel and looked at all the switches, buttons, and dials, grateful that most of them actually were labeled. _'Come on, show me the button.'_ Jaune scanned the panel twice before noticing a small, inch wide blue button covered by a metal cage, locked to the panel. Above it was a label that read "Cease and Discharge". He lifted Crocea Mors, slid the sword under the cage, and started to move it up, down and side to side, slowly prying the cage off. The lock creaked before snapping and the cage flying off with the force Jaune was using...and flying at Sun who DIDN'T shriek in surprise.

After sheathing Crocea Mors, Jaune reached out to press the button, but a sharp "Wait!" from Yang made him pause.

"What Yang?"

"Are you sure it's safe to just release her? What if she doesn't survive outside that tank? It looks like it's supporting her."

Jaune thought hard for a minute. "Sun, does it say anywhere in that packet about a release procedure?"

Sun skimmed through all the pages back and forth several times before shaking his head at Jaune. "Not that I can find. So what do we do?"

"We risk it."

"Are you sure that's a smart idea Jauney?" Nora questioned him.

"No, but what else can we do right now?" Without another word, Jaune pressed the button. _'Dear Oum please let this turn out ok.'_ There was a loud buzz, then it was followed by repeated spastic buzzes. With the frequent buzzes, the tank began to empty of the blue-green liquid out of a drain that opened at the bottom, and the baby was being lowered to the floor. After it was empty and she was on the ground, the tubes retracted from her mouth and nose. However, the child just laid there on the bottom of the tank on the floor. Soaked and motionless.

Jaune was by the infant's side in a second and was crouched down, leaning his head near her mouth. He didn't hear any breathing. "No no no" Jaune started using three fingers on his right hand to press on her tiny abdomen in CPR. The rest of the group just watched in shock and a few in horror. It might be a clone, but it was still a child. A child that wasn't breathing.

"Come on" Jaune pinched her nose closed with his left hand and did mouth to mouth. His hand on her abdomen glowing with white aura and soon her whole body was glowing. The light faded and as he went to do mouth and mouth again…

"Waaaaaaaah! Waaaaa!"

Jaune sat back, sighing as his body relaxed. "You gave me quite the scare there" he chuckled. The group behind him sighed too. Sun and Yang even chuckled with him. Jaune stood up and started taking off his upper armor. His chest piece, arm protectors, and gloves hit the ground. Then he moved onto taking his hoodie off.

"Uuuh Jaune? Why are you stripping? I mean it's a good show and all but.." Yang inquired which got some of the group to look away with a blush and look away. Namely Weiss, Ruby, and Ilia.

Jaune stopped after removing his hoodie. Leaving him in a tight-ish white shirt with his JNPR embroidered under his Arc family symbol on the front by his right pec. "Haha Yang. I'm happy you think so." Gesturing to the crying baby "It's for her. It's probably freezing in here for her."

"Oh. Right."

"Let's get you up off the cold floor little one." Jaune bent over, wrap his hoodie around her, and lifted the still wailing baby up, cradling her in his arms and drying her off lightly with his hoodie. Jaune felt a smile creep on to his face as he stared at the child. "Aren't you a loud one. Come on now, settle down. It's all okay." The baby stared up at the strange man holding her. Her bright golden eyes meeting his deep blue ones. His smile made her feel safe. Her crying turned into a light whimpering, then it stop all together Jaune just kept muttering to her.

"Awwwwwww" Ruby, Nora, and Ilia couldn't hold it any longer. The rest of the group turned to them. Only Ilia and Ruby looked sheepish. "Aaaand we ruined the moment didn't we?"

"Only a bit Rubes" Yang chuckled.

"It's okay. We should leave anyways. This place isn't really the setting for a heartwarming moment". Jaune changed how he was holding the child to holding her against his chest and faced the group.

Ren walked over to Jaune's discarded equipment and picked it all up, Jaune nodded to him in thanks. He quickly glanced around the room "We've done everything we can here. We already got all the wounded inside the castle. We should meet back up at the base camp."

"Yeah. Dad and uncle qrow are probably worried about us. We should meet up with them asap."

"Okay then. Let's go guys. Let's go see everyone." Jaune started for the door. They all turned and followed Jaune out the door. They walked as a group down deserted halls, silently content with their victory and that the fighting was over with. The mood was also lightened up with the fact that the little wide eyed girl in Jaune's arms had started to smile in the knight's caring arms. As they were nearing the main gate Yang spoke up.

"So what are you going to name her Jaune?"

"Huh?" was his intelligent reply.

"Well she needs a name right. No way will we call her Cinder. Also, you're the one that found her, made the decision to help her and care for her. I think it's your choice."

"I feel the same." Blake seconded

"Really guys?"

Everyone nodded.

"I-I don't know. I'm not that good with names remember."

Sun snickered quietly "Flower Power.", only to be slapped on the arm by Blake and Ilia. "Ow!"

Ruby suggested "How about we name her after Pyrrha? To honor her memory?"

Jaune shot it down. "No. That would feel wrong. There will only ever be one Pyrrha." He thought hard about it. As they walked through the giant open giant and saw the remaining forces of their allies cheering around a giant bonfire, it hit him. "Fotiá. Her name will be Fotiá Arc." Fotiá apparently liked that name, because after Jaune said it, she laughed, and it seemed to brighten up all of Remnant.

 **Authors Note: Holy wow! This took such a long time to do. High school ending, things with my grandpa passing, college starting, laziness, and just having confidence issues with my writing. Overall I've been coming back to this little by little for I believe four to five months. It's done now though. I hope you readers enjoyed it! It possibly may be continued with more chapters (I'd really like to) and maybe even future pairings, but I don't mange what little free time I do get very well. Any ways, thanks again for reading and hopefully I'll be back soon! Make sure to leave a review so I can get better!**

 **This is JustinEverything saying goodbye for now.**

 **Total Word Count: 3423**

 **Story Word Count: 3196**

 **Date Posted to : September 14, 2018**


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